Associated Press
As part of the Trump Administration’s campaign to promote healthy eating, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has not limited himself to his slogan, which urges people to “eat real food” to prevent disease.
In recent speeches and podcast appearances, Kennedy Jr. has also claimed that the diet can “cure” schizophrenia and diabetes, and allow people to free themselves from bipolar disorder diagnoses. The researchers maintain that these comments they exaggerate current evidence about the real and promising role that diet can play in disease management.
“Food is medicine, and you can heal yourself with a good diet,” Kennedy declared in February on the podcast This Past Weekendby comedian Theo Von.
This argument coincides with an idea promoted by Kennedy’s allies in the initiative Make America Healthy Againwhich has received some bipartisan support: that the role of diet in health deserves greater attention.
Scientists agree that diet can contribute to the development of some diseases and also be valuable in their treatment. However, public health advocates point out that Kennedy’s exaggerations are part of a pattern in which he HElectures in a biased manner and distorts scientific research; a trend that has regularly been applied to the field of vaccine science, provoking the indignation of doctors.
It’s the latest example of Kennedy being “incredibly careless and irresponsible” in speaking out about health issues, said Kayla Hancock, director of a public health project at the advocacy group Protect Our Care.
Dr. Theresa Miskimen Rivera, president of the American Psychiatric Association, fears this language could lead patients to self-medicate with food alone.
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“The concern is always that people are hopeful and may interpret this as, ‘Well, I don’t need medication. I don’t need treatment. I just need to follow the diet,'” Rivera said.
Kennedy exaggerates scientific evidence on diet and psychiatric disorders
In a speech in early February at the Tennessee Capitol, Kennedy cited the work of Dr. Christopher Palmer, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, who in 2019 wrote about two patients with schizophrenia who experienced a remission of their symptoms after following a high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet.
Kennedy claimed that Palmer had “cured schizophrenia using ketogenic diets.”
Palmer has called that statement inaccurate.. The researcher told the Associated Press that, “as much as I wish we had cures for mental illness or other chronic illnesses, it is important that we use more precise language.”
Palmer prefers the term “remission.”
During the same speech, and later on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Kennedy referenced studies “where people lose their bipolar disorder diagnosis by changing their diet.” He stated that “an important article is about to be published” that presents results in this regard.
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Kennedy spokesman Andrew Nixon said those comments alluded to a “growing body of research” on the topic, including a study from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) investigating the effect of the ketogenic diet on adolescents with bipolar disorder.
That study is still in the patient recruitment phase and will not conclude until March 2027, according to a publication on a federal website. Any publication about it would occur months after that date.
Rivera, of the American Psychiatric Association, said Kennedy’s claims exaggerate existing evidence. As he explained, the studies that have evaluated the role of the ketogenic diet in mental health conditions have been small-scale, anecdotal or pilot studies. Many of them did not include a control group made up of patients following a conventional diet.
“At this point, it’s premature. We can’t draw definitive conclusions,” Rivera said. “There is not enough evidence to recommend a specific diet, nor to use it as a sole and independent treatment, without the accompaniment of medications such as antipsychotics or mood stabilizers.”
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It’s true that research into the effects of the ketogenic diet—and other diets—on psychiatric disorders is gaining momentum, Palmer said. He mentioned that there are currently 20 controlled clinical trials using the ketogenic diet to treat serious mental illnesses, and the results of two of these trials are expected to be published within the next year.
Palmer said he was “very excited” about the diet as a promising therapy for serious psychiatric disorders; However, he insisted that patients with mental illnesses should always consult their doctors.
“I want to appeal to patients: please do not stop your medications on your own initiative,” he pleaded. “Please don’t even try a ketogenic diet on your own as a treatment for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.”
Diabetes experts are divided on the impact of Kennedy Jr.’s words.
Comments Kennedy Jr. made on Von’s podcast, stating that “most cases of diabetes can be cured through diet,” have also come under scrutiny. Some experts maintain that the Secretary of Health exaggerated the role that diet plays.
Type 1 diabetes — an autoimmune disorder — cannot be cured by diet alone, said Dr. Willa Hsueh, an endocrinologist and researcher at The Ohio State University. A healthy diet and exercise are essential for managing type 2 diabetes; However, it may be difficult to use these tools alone to reverse the disorder, he added.
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“The secretary is not wrong when he says this can work,” Hsueh said. “But it’s not common for people to be able to cure themselves… based on diet alone.”
Others, for their part, defended Kennedy’s statements about this disease, which affects 40 million people in the United States.
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, said a healthy diet could help “most people” with type 2 diabetes lower their blood sugar levels, reverse symptoms and allow them to stop taking medications for the condition.
“Whether it’s considered a cure or a remission, that’s medical jargon, right?” Mozaffarian said.
He acknowledged that Kennedy is not “always perfectly precise in terminology, and that could carry risks.” However, he welcomed the high-level attention being paid to the role of diet in improving chronic diseases.
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“I’d rather hype it up and get some attention and action than keep doing what we’re doing: having millions of Americans suffering from diet-related diseases,” Mozaffarian said.
MAHA supporters want more attention to be paid to nutrition.
Mark Gorton, president of the Kennedy Jr.-affiliated MAHA Institute, said he was not familiar with the studies Kennedy referenced, but noted that nutrition has been “an incredibly underserved area in our medical system for decades.”
“I think, as much as possible, we should prioritize focusing on diet and getting back to healthy living, rather than taking sick people and medicating them for life, which is the way our system currently works,” Gorton said.
Kody Green, a mental health advocate who suffers from schizophrenia, expressed his support for healthy eating, but clarified that he does need psychiatric medications. He worries that Kennedy’s comments could discourage patients with schizophrenia from trying drugs that are already stigmatized.
“For some people, maybe diet can help with the problems they have, but schizophrenia is a very serious mental illness,” Green said. “Until more research is done, making statements like that can be really dangerous for people in my community,” he said.
